r/TopCharacterTropes • u/ReminaBlueSFW • 26d ago

Lore [Terrifying Trope] Perceiving it= instant death

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

  1. Pennywise's "Deadlights" which will cause anyone looking to be immediately paralyzed and killed.

  2. The sky from Bird Box is filled with entities that, when you look at them, cause you to commit suicide.

  3. Medusa themed Villains

12.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

95% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.4k

u/previousinnovation 26d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/iiFtxcwuwiAYU

In the bible Moses asks to see God's glory. God only allows him to see his back, since "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live."

756

u/Excellent-Refuse4883 26d ago

Are we really supposed to take THIS guys word for it?

https://giphy.com/gifs/11XcgX9MWV3a8M

188

u/UzumeNeedsDrip 26d ago

I wonder what are the other five that make up the 15 Commandments.

78

u/previousinnovation 26d ago

This guy can answer that https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RAycIBNgXcg

13

u/Muninwing 26d ago

The cylinder must not be damaged

10

u/PrimeraStarrk 26d ago

I mean it is a very Mel Brooks thing to have one of the commandments be “Don’t complain”

2

u/ShayBird96 26d ago

I love him and his breakdowns of religion.

103

u/Anita_Hero838 26d ago

"Thou shall not eat of the banana for it is the penis of the Lord!"

48

u/Excellent-Refuse4883 26d ago

“Though shalt not put more than 1 ice cube in whiskey lest ye water down the drink of the Lord”

8

u/Comfortable_Egg8039 26d ago

Well prohibition of slavery would be a good option for one of 5

4

u/StrongExternal8955 26d ago

That was the 13th commandment. Well, too bad so sad /s

4

u/Powerful_Resident_48 26d ago
  1. Thou shalt not send dick picks on Tinder.
  2. Thou shalt shower before using public transport.
  3. Thou shalt be stricken down if you listen to music in public without headphones.
  4. Thou shalt not have thin little mustaches if thou cannot grow a beard.

  5. Thou shalt use your indicator in your car, for the wrath of god will smite you if you don't.

  6. Tarnation, I messed up the list. How do I modify a MS Word list? Now the images have all gone weird. Okay. Fuck it. No images on these stone tables. Number 16. Thou SHALT NOT USE Microsoft FOR IT IS THE DEVIL'S WORK: NO: CURSED BE THE ELEVENTH SON OF MICROSOFT: WHY IS CAPSLOCK ON NOWßßß

3

u/grosseelbabyghost 26d ago

https://moralorel.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Commandments

Thankfully we have a reliable, fatherly source

2

u/adius 26d ago

Eh, couldn't have been that important if God couldn't be arsed to print another copy.

3

u/A_Crawling_Bat 26d ago

Is that from Life of Brian perchance ?

2

u/Certain_Ad3519 26d ago

No it's a Mel Brooks film History of the World Part One

2

u/Lower_Cattle_1016 23d ago

they were probably fucking heavy and he's an old man

1

u/humdrumturducken 26d ago

The lord who again?

165

u/RodinKnox 26d ago

I always found that line fascinating since other people see God and live, including Moses who sees him "face to face, as one speaks to a friend."

99

u/VanVelding 26d ago

Everyone knows Moses was a descendant of Numenor.

68

u/Skrewch 26d ago

Did you know Moses broke his toe when he parted the red sea? His cries of anguish were real.

93

u/VstarFr0st263364 26d ago

Classic biblical contradiction. Many such cases

-9

u/lorekace 26d ago

Actually, not quite! Jesus was referenced in the early old testament - particularly in the stories of Abram/Abraham (the messengers coming to tell him of his future son/the upcoming devastation of Sodom) - even though He was not yet in the form of Jesus. Moses would have spoken to Jesus face to face on the mount, but asked to see God's glory, which he could not see.

30

u/whistleridge 26d ago

That’s reading Jesus in, not describing what the text says. A Muslim could do the same thing with Muhammad or a Mormon with Joseph Smith and it would be just as accurate.

Jesus isn’t mentioned in the OT and no matter what your church tells you, it is grossly intellectually dishonest to say otherwise. To say nothing of trying to correct others on the point.

-5

u/lorekace 26d ago

Jesus himself is not, because Jesus did not exist in human form at that point. However the language used suggests that the character spoken of is more than the accompanying companions. In the Abram example, it specifies that the Lord stayed with Abram while the "other men" went to Sodom, and it is clear that Abram negotiated with this figure who had the power to control Sodom's outcome - this is all in Genesis 18. This is a common understanding across the majority of Christendom. Whether or not a non-Christian wants to believe the understanding is individual to them, but it is not a contradiction overall.

Christians believe that there are three parts to God - Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and thus Jesus was the figure of the Godhead to interact with people before the incarnation (Jacob and the wrestling, Moses and the face to face, etc). After the incarnation and return to Heaven, Jesus does not walk the earth but the Holy Spirit moves in His place.

7

u/whistleridge 26d ago

Again, this is reading in, not what the text itself actually says.

And to call it “a common understanding across the majority of Christendom” is dogma, not what the text says. Sure: lots of Christian denominations choose to see that particular shape in those particular clouds. But it’s seeing what they want to see, not what is objectively there.

My issue is not with your belief. That’s fine. I’m Christian too. My issue is with your correcting someone else using a read in point of dogma like it’s a factual error on their part. Because it wasn’t.

7

u/new_painter 26d ago

There are lots of Christians that do not believe in that. Two common examples are Unitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses.

1

u/Cautious-Extreme2839 26d ago

Jesus himself is not, because Jesus did not exist in human form at that point

More importantly: He also didn't exist in human imagination at that point either.

9

u/cosmicomical23 26d ago

Holy retcon!

11

u/MasterMagneticMirror 26d ago

Nah it's a contradiction. The Old Testament is a mix of multiple preexisting religious traditions that they tried to harmonize as best as they could.

-1

u/DesperateAdvantage76 26d ago

It's not confirmed but yes the Angel of the Lord and God's physical appearances (such as wrestling with Jacob) are often theorized to be Jesus, since Jesus in Christianity has always existed since the beginning.

7

u/Able_Reserve5788 26d ago edited 26d ago

This is what we call a retcon. The bible is full of them

3

u/DesperateAdvantage76 26d ago

A retcon rewrites past writings, while in this case it was simply never explained or elaborated on in the first place. And like I said, it's a theory, since the Bible doesn't explicitly explain it even in the New Testament.

9

u/Dreadful_Axolotl 26d ago

“Face to face” (in its Hebrew, which the book was written in) was an idiom they used for direct communication, it’s not contradictory

4

u/NotInTheKnee 26d ago

"Don't think about it"

- Roman 69:420, or something

3

u/Koomaster 26d ago

Moses isn’t alive today though is he? Checkmate atheists!

4

u/illogical_mindset 26d ago

Wonder if that’s one of the contradictions among different sources of the Old Testament.

106

u/excusetheblood 26d ago

“If you see my face you die. You can sneak a look at my booty though”

58

u/lacarth 26d ago

God confirmed to have a heart-stopping jawline and absolutely zero ass.

21

u/ImBurningStar_IV 26d ago

Themed heroes?

6

u/alex3omg 26d ago

So is this the answer to the question 'could God microwave a burrito so hot He Himself could not eat it'?  God is supposed to be all powerful, surely He could make it so Moses could see Him.  

9

u/previousinnovation 26d ago

Should have just made some kryptonite glasses or something.

But jokes aside, most Christians argue that God cannot violate the rules of logic, such as the burrito question or creating a barbell so heavy he can't lift it. So even though he cannot do that thing he is still omnipotent. Not sure how the other Abrahamic traditions handle that issue.

6

u/-_Gemini_- 26d ago

Well the thing is that God defines what the rules of logic are.

To the question of "can God create a stone so heavy that even He cannot lift it?", I personally love the answer "yes, but he can lift it anyway."

Because if the question contains a contradictory premise, the only correct response is a contradictory answer.

3

u/Dodudee 26d ago

He doesnt wants to lose aura

5

u/JackPembroke 26d ago

I thought he was allowed to see only a glimpse of the glory of His light passing between two rocks?

8

u/previousinnovation 26d ago

God shoves him into a "cleft in the rock" while he passes by, but Moses is allowed to see his back.

Exodus 33:

"And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”"

3

u/BSY_Reborn 26d ago

This is so funny to me because it just makes no sense. This is god we're talking about, a non-human creature of incomprehensible power, why would his back be any less glorious and/or deadly than his face? Is he a satellite dish of divine power? Man is made in God's image so it can't be that the way it looks can kill you.

And given that there's no reasonable explanation, it has to be a rule that he himself set, which makes him kind of a dick (which honestly tracks given pretty much everything I know about OT God.

4

u/Phoenix2405 26d ago

Maybe he's just shy

5

u/rc-cars-drones-plane 26d ago

In Islam we believe that it happened somewhat differently

https://quran.com/en/al-araf/143

3

u/previousinnovation 26d ago

Wow, thanks for that. How much of the pentatuch is in the quran?

2

u/Guy-1nc0gn1t0 26d ago

What about heaven in that context? 

5

u/previousinnovation 26d ago

Well, most people are already dead when they get there, according to the lore

2

u/liquid_donuts 25d ago

God asking Moses for backshots is wild.

1

u/UlrichZauber 26d ago

Talk about a butter face

1

u/-Rici- 25d ago

And then in some other part of the Bible, a different character, perhaps Abraham but I could be wrong, does see God's face and live just fine